Well before the DBX, Aston Martin tried its hand at an SUV with the one-off LUV concept – a ride that wasn’t exactly street-legal at the time, but it’s now available for those who dare to be different
November 5, 2023 at 17:12
It may look like a Saab 9-5 that got stung by a bee from the side. It may look like a basset hound pretending to be an Aston Martin from the front. And yet, there is still something deeply fascinating about this 2009 Lagonda Concept LUV that may make you want to bid on it during its upcoming auction.
The result of an early brainstorming meeting between Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz, the vehicle was presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 2009. For obvious reasons, the Concept LUV never made it to production, and that’s good. But it is also good that the concept car was never destroyed.
Handed over to a private owner at some point in its past, Aston Martin told The Drive that the vehicle was never made road legal. That explains why it has 0 miles on the odometer, and means the next buyer likely won’t be allowed to drive it either.
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Photos Collecting Cars
And that’s a shame, because under the hood, it has the same 5.9-liter V12 that powered the era’s DB9 and DBS. However, if it had gone into production, the Lagonda Concept LUV would have been based on the Mercedes GL-Class platform.
That seems like a perfectly good combination for what it was trying to achieve. Essentially, the Lagonda brand was supposed to allow Aston Martin to make luxury vehicles without watering down the performance bona fides of the central brand.
You can see just how seriously they were taking that luxury focus inside. There’s leather everywhere, and the seats look like they have a fur collar, which makes them look a bit like Cruella De Vil. Weirdly, I think I mean that in a good way, though.
It’s interesting that this idea failed to take off, and that the only modern Lagonda to make it to production was that pointy thing based on the Aston Martin Rapide. A Luxurious sub-brand for the automaker still sounds like a good idea.
While the DBX is proof that Aston Martin doesn’t really have to worry about watering down its brand name, this is a fascinating and rare look at what could have been. Unfortunately, it’s hard to estimate what it will cost to get it into your garage, but the car is located in Buckinghamshire, U.K., and the upcoming auction is being handled by Collecting Cars.